Sociology Reflection

In this course, the greatest thing I learned was patience and perspective towards other people and cultures. 

Many people judge what they see without questioning the causes, which is why the obvious sometimes is not so accurate. It is important to debunk and critique information, so that a greater understanding can be determined.

We learned about social injustice, the inequality that much of society still faces today whether it be because of their sexual orientation, age, race, or even gender. Many people are ethnocentric, placing their own culture or group on a more important hierarchy in comparison to others. In reality though, there is no better culture than any other, it just depends on perspective and what people are used to, so they judge others accordingly. 

One of the main things we focused on is that race is not a reality, but merely a myth. Humans have closer genetic similarities to those of other ‘races’ than to their own. Race is not something that is biological, it is a human creation, in the same way that society is.

Society was created by us, and has thus come to control us. “man is only as free as his chains.”

Social stratification is the way that society separates itself, again based off of class, race, gender etc. There are different types of stratification ranging from the absolute poor (a group which has pretty much no way of climbing the social ladder,) and the power elite (a specific group of people who hold much power and money over society.)

Until society realizes that they are controlled by Capitalism, and that 99% of society is working to keep the rich, frankly rich, the pattern of social control will continue. When the day comes that all of society understands the unfairness that has been placed upon it, and desires equality, that is the day that danger to all will exist.

Displacement – Oral

Displacement is the action of diverting energy to another, generally unrelated object or subject.

For example, a person loses their job and is angry at their former employer, resulting in a high level of stress for their future income. When they get home, their spouse over cooks their dinner, and they end up creating an angry fight with their spouse to release the anger, even though it is not their spouse that initially caused the negative feelings.

I’ve done this before when my dog wouldn’t stop barking so I punched the chair beside me because she was making me angry.

Race Is A Myth – Illustration

Race, a word that is very hard to define, is classified as a myth because there is no way to really prove it exists. There are too many factors, and who’s to say where the cut off is for dividing a person from one category to another (skin colour, hair type etc.), in order to define them as white, black, yellow etc.

Even though race is a myth, people tend to carry a large bias towards ‘minorities.’ It has been ignorantly displayed that being white is the most important ‘race’

Recently, in Florida, a young boy by the name of Trayvon Martin was shot by a ‘neighbour watch’ who claimed that he killed the boy in self defence; however, an investigation is under way where the belief is that the shooting was racially motivated because the young boy was of ‘black decent.’

If evidence proves correct, this is a sick and unnecessary taking of a life. Skin colour differentiation does not make someone any less of a person. In fact, it has been proven that people are more genetically similar to those of a different decent than their ‘own kind’.

Who’s fault is it? – Oral

In class we discussed the skyscraper concept, where some people are significantly higher up on the social ladder than others due to their wealth.

We talked about how some people have the option of moving to the top of the skyscraper, while others don’t.

My point was that it is very difficult for say a single mother with no education and little income, potentially a bad credit record, to have a new chance at life. The government or schools is very unlikely to grant her a student loan, she can’t afford an education, and even if she could who would take care of her child? She may have an IQ of 135 or be the next genius, somebody who could contribute positively and effectively to society, but due to lack of resources has no chance of climbing the social ladder (unless by chance, she inherits a large sum of money or wins the lottery).

Lecture #11 – Society’s Responsibilities – Illustration

Society has responsibilities to the poor. It is responsible for creating resources such as charities or welfare for the less fortunate.

Recently in the news, a little girl needed dental work done that required an anaesthetic gas that the government would not pay for, therefore billing the already struggling mom. An outreach of donations was made from strangers who were more fortunate, and wanting to help the struggling mom. Not only did they benefit the mother by helping with her bills, but they benefited themselves as well by making them selves feel happy for doing something nice for somebody else. This is a double win situation, where the responsibilities of different classes successfully allow society to operate the way it should, in a cycle.

Adade Article – The Phantom of the Race: The Myth of Race and the Reality of Racism – Dialectic

What question did the text/chapter raise?

The text raised the question as to what the difference between race and racism is.

How did the text answer this question?

The difference between race and racism is that one concept is evident, racism, while the other is a vague representation of a word, race. The term race can consist of so many things, and it translates differently from culture to culture depending on how they view things. Some places define race solely based off skin colour, while others may take in to account the size of ones head, or how much of one ‘identity’ (European, African etc.) a persons genes consist of. This is why race is considered to be something that truly does not exist, because it is just a labelling of man’s creation. Racism, however, is evident in every day life. There is a definite prejudice towards people of alien skin colours, whether it be violent discrimination or even an average lower earnings of wages in a place compared to the majority colour representation of the area. It is important to educate people in anti-racism, so that racism will be one less negative thing humanity can live without.

How does the answer match our own ideas and experiences?

I’ve personally never intentionally been directly involved in an act of racism; however, by taking part in the Canadian democratic society I live in, I unwillingly consent to prejudice and racism by means of government workings, not supplying minority groups with equal rights and jobs in the work force. I’ve seen racism take place not only globally but locally as well – disgusting hate crimes, beatings in Vancouver against people of a minority ‘race’. With a global sociological imagination, it is easy to see the effects of racism worldwide. Countries surrounding each other take on the roles of others, whether it be stepping back and increasing racism, or following one another to a unity of anti-racism. News casts display this world-wide, and living the first world country that I do, it becomes evident how severe racism is in some areas. Governments, such as Canada try to intervene on these short-comings of humanity, but it seems clear that racism is just another concept that will need to take it’s time in abolishing. As people gain knowledge, their ignorance will leave, and they will stop being so superficial.

Adade Article – Who Will Liberate Liberia? – Paraphrastic

This article speaks about the prejudiced ‘help’ the Bush administration has commanded to Iraq, whom on a scale of internal issues, does not fair heavily to other nations such as Liberia. Bush, apparently, wanted to create peace using war, although it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the plan against Iraq was only convenient to help the nation because in turn, America would be helped through oil. Liberia, or other nations who do not have any raw resources that come to use internationally, remain in a shadow where famine and poverty coexist, killing thousands of people every day.

“In our Orwellian World justice is blind and selective. Reality is dictated by the tunnel vision logic and eyes see only what eyes want to see. Thus Bush and his war apparatus can see Iraq’s imaginary weapons of mass destruction, but they can not see real ones in Israel, Iran, India, Korea, and Pakistan. The Bush Administration can spot and target the tyrant in Baghdad for removal (they call it euphemistically “regime change”) but conveniently cannot see similar tyrants and autocrats who dot the global landscape. America-inspired sanctions killed thousands of Iraqis annually, but that is the price of freedom and has no relation whatsoever to the victims of Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers, they say.”

Due to the fact that the U.S.A. was personally effected by the 9/11 attacks, Bush’s administration became blind to the other problems in the world could only see one ‘problem’, Iraq. Bush solely saw revenge as a plan for his peace-seeking. You can’t make peace with war.

I selected the segment to paraphrase because it displays a good example of other nations the Bush Administration could have focused on had it really been interested in creating peace.